Instead, it is meaningless. The only thing being lit is a candle for the idea that Two-Time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash might be playing his final game in Phoenix tonight with free agency available to him in July.

Even with Nash at the helm, the Suns missed the playoffs in two consecutive seasons for the first time since 1988 by losing 100-88 Tuesday night at Utah.

The Jazz (35-30) clinched the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff seed by snapping a seven-game losing streak to Phoenix and holding the Suns to 40.5 percent shooting with 15 turnovers. The Suns will miss the playoffs for the third time in four years and are left to play out the schedule tonight against San Antonio, the West's top seed who likely will use stars lightly or not at all tonight.

The Suns (33-32) rallied from a 12-19 start for an 18-8 stretch but are closing with five losses in their past eight games.

The Suns had to fight from behind nearly all night in Utah because of a sloppy first half. They were already missing Channing Frye, who was present but out due to Saturday's shoulder subluxation, and then Grant Hill's comeback was cut short after a brief first-quarter appearance.

"We didn't deserve it tonight," Nash said. "Without Channing and Grant, it was just too much to ask."
Hill had a good day of testing out his sore right knee after 10 days out of action and getting it drained twice but missed three shots and had it iced after three minutes of play.

Frye's replacement, rookie Markieff Morris, made his first start since late January and continued a season-long fouling trend. He committed four fouls in his first 19 minutes, keeping up the pace that had him and Robin Lopez tied for the ninth most fouls per 48 minutes (7.0) in the NBA. Morris, Nash, Jared Dudley also each went 0 for 3 on 3-pointers.

The problems up front were further complicated by center Marcin Gortat, who made his first shot from the perimeter and then had his next five shots in the lane blocked and missed his final seven shots in all.
"You can't afford to not play well in a game like this," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "They did a good job overall on screen-and-rolls. They took Marcin out of the game. We have to shoot the ball better from the perimeter. They outplayed us."

In the past 11 days, Gortat has posted shooting games of 1 for 8 at Utah, 2 for 13 against Oklahoma City and 3 for 12 at San Antonio.

"Some possessions, I should finish harder and stronger," Gortat said. "I understand that. Some possessions, I was going hard and it's impossible that you've got three guys blocking a shot at the same time. I don't care if I get (expletive) fined for that. One guy would block the shot and the other two guys would hit me in the arm and I wasn't able to go up. It's just frustrating. Many situations were my responsibility. I take the blame for that."

The ineffectiveness of the Suns' go-to play was a drain on the Suns' perimeter game, in addition to Frye's absence for a team he had hurt with the 3 lately. Only Michael Redd (3 for 6) and Shannon Brown (2 for 4) made 3s while the rest of the team was 0 for 13 on 3s.

"That was our bread and butter for a while," Nash said of rolls to Gortat, who once led the NBA in field goal percentage. "That hurt a little bit. I don't think it helped the rest of our game. When people have to think about that and protect about that, it opens up other things. When we didn't connect on that as much, it made the game harder for everybody."

Emergency power forward Hakim Warrick, despite late-season inactivity, stepped up for Phoenix with 12 points and five rebounds off the bench and the Suns used a zone defense to try to survive.

The problem was they were allowing Utah to get into transition early and often. The Jazz shot 34 percent from the field during half-court offense in the first half but led 49-42 at halftime because of 20 fastbreak points. For as poorly as the Suns looked in the first half with nine turnovers and 39.5 percent shooting, they stayed within striking distance because Brown and Redd each hit a pair of 3s.

The Suns had to fight off Paul Millsap's nine-point, eight-rebound third quarter to stay in the game and entered the fourth quarter trailing 73-68 and with only one fourth-quarter road rally to their credit all season.

The Suns opened the fourth with a Redd 3, a Sebastian Telfair 3-point play and a Redd shot while fouled to lead 76-74. They then scored two points over nearly six minutes, including consecutive Telfairr turnovers, to fall behind 85-78 with less than five minutes to go. Al Jefferson burned Gortat twice and then scored twice more in a row off his replacement, Robin Lopez, to put Utah ahead 93-80 with 2:17 to go.

Ina must-win game, the Suns wound up with an odd closing lineup of Nash, Jared Dudley, Redd, Warrick and Lopez. The Suns needed big games from Nash and Gortat and the two went five for 19 from the field.

"We weren't efficient enough to win the game," Nash said. "The way their bigs were scoring the ball and blocking shots and getting on the glass, we had to be really efficient offensively and we weren't tonight."

View from press row

The ongoing softening of Marcin Gortat's offensive finishes in the lane this season has been noticeable, but never as alarming as it was Tuesday in the first half of the season's biggest game. Gortat, who has gone more to a finesse game since breaking a thumb in the preseason, had five consecutive shots blocked by Utah's Al Jefferson and Derrick Favors. Gortat had one more block waiting for him when he came out for the second half. General Manager Lance Blanks was there to meet him for a one-way talk.

Report

Key Player

Utah's Paul Millsap, going against backups who were playing because of Channing Frye's injury, posted 26 points and 15 rebounds.

Key moment

After taking a 76-74 lead, the Suns missed seven of their next eight shots and committed two turnovers to fall behind by seven with five minutes to go.